


Backwards Step

by gelowo93



Series: Beginnings are the Hardest [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-10
Updated: 2012-08-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 20:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/482796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelowo93/pseuds/gelowo93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of exams party in the common room, Teddy is surprised at, and not entirely pleased with, Victoire's actions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Backwards Step

It was over.

Teddy held his head high as he walked out of the Great Hall. He caught Uncle Harry's eye, who was standing to one side of the double doors that led to the Entrance Hall, overseeing the N.E.W.T. exam. Uncle Harry gave Teddy a curt nod, before a grin stretched over his face. Teddy gave him a small smile back in response, his nerves from the exam having not faded away completely yet, and feeling like he would throw up if he tried to do anything else.

Fortunately, Uncle Harry didn't try to engage Teddy in a conversation as he left the Hall, and Teddy understood it as Harry trying to remain professional, rather than sparing him the inevitable and maddening questioning of how he thought he'd done. No, Teddy would most likely still get that conversation later, once Harry had finished with his self-imposed Auror duties, even though he was sure that Harry knew how he had done and would just be doing it so that he could smile mysteriously when Teddy shared his thoughts on the exam. Teddy shook his head.  _Adults_.

As soon as Teddy stepped out of the Great Hall, he spotted three of his best friends hovering by the foot of the Grand Staircase. They all looked over to him at the sound of the doors opening and closing, and while Garrett waved him over, Isaac and Diana barely glanced at him before turning back to face each other and carrying on their conversation in muted yet annoyed voices. Teddy raised an eyebrow at Garrett, who shrugged.

"Lover's spat," was all he gave as an explanation. "How was it?"

Teddy groaned; someone really needed to make it illegal to be asked about an exam as soon as it had finished.

"Could have been worse. I'd rather just forget about it than relive it in my head."

"Fair enough." Garrett turned to the quarrelling couple, "Are you two finished yet?"

Isaac paused mid-sentence to glare at Garrett, but he didn't have the time to respond before Diana hit him over the head, drawing his attention back to her. Teddy winced in sympathy for his friend.

"Was Harry there, then?" asked Garrett.

"Yeah, of course he was, I didn't get to speak to him though. I'm sure he'll find me later so he can chat to me, I can get you his autograph then if you want."

"I don't – I've never wanted – You always – Argh," Garrett spluttered while Teddy snickered in amusement. It was a running joke that Garrett was only friends with Teddy because he wanted to meet his Godfather, and, although he had never downright asked for Teddy to get him his autograph, it was all Garrett had talked about back in First year and the joke had stuck long after he had grown past his fixation with The Boy Who Lived. It had made Teddy uncomfortable at first, but by now he was used to being approached by people who only wanted to talk to him because of his famous connections, and he was able to recognise that that wasn't the case with Garrett.

"He won't mind if you come with me later, you know. He's used to people wanting autographs and what not. Maybe this time I won't have to speak for you."

Garrett did his best to act disinterested, and all he said was, "No thanks."

"Really? I thought –"

"You thought wrong."

"But –"

"Shut up."

Teddy grinned, but decided not to push it further. Garrett had a rather short temper, and while he might not have taken N.E.W.T. level Defence Against the Dark Arts, he excelled at Transfiguration and Teddy didn't fancy being turned into an ant and stepped on.

The doors to the Great Hall creaked open then, and the four of them glanced over to see the fifth member of their little group of friends walking towards them shakily and looking rather too pale to be healthy.

Seeing Alison like that was enough to stop Isaac and Diana arguing, and Teddy walked to meet Alison, embracing her in a hug when he reached her.

"What's the matter? What happened?"

Alison let out a shaky laugh. "Honestly, Teddy, the way you say that makes it sound like something terrible happened."

"You look like something terrible happened, so what was it?"

Alison pulled away and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Just… I think I messed up. A lot."

"You'll have done fine. It's only fifty-per cent of the mark, and you can drown your sorrows tonight," Isaac said.

"I can?"

"Sure. Party tonight in the Common Room, it's all set."

Alison seemed to cheer up slightly at this – she couldn't resist a good House party – but Teddy saw Diana's lips tighten and he guessed that this was what she and Isaac had been arguing about.

Not wanting the argument to pick up again now that it had abated for the moment, Teddy spoke up,

"Come on, there's no need to hang around here. I feel like I've not been outside in weeks."

"I don't think you have, you're as bad as Di. I've only spoke to her in whispers for weeks because she's always been in the library," said Alison.

Together, the small group made their way outside and across the school grounds. Teddy relished the feel of the sun on his skin, and breathing in the fresh air after weeks of reading dusty tomes by candlelight. It seemed as though even the weather was celebrating the end of exams; there wasn't a cloud in the sky, which had resulted in the majority of students abandoning their common rooms to sit outside and enjoy the rarity that was the Scottish sunshine.

The five of them came to a stop near to an old beech tree, and Teddy collapsed onto the soil beneath its branches. Di and Isaac sat down, leaning against the trunk of the tree and seemingly resumed the conversation they had been having before Teddy had joined them in the Entrance Hall. Not wanting to intrude on their quarrel, Alison and Garratt sat closer to Teddy than to Di and Isaac.

It wasn't exactly uncommon for Di and Isaac to be having an argument of some kind, in fact, it was a biweekly occurrence. Teddy let their voices become background noise, joining the whisper of the leaves on the trees as a light breeze passed over them, the voices drifting over from the lakeside, and the soft lapping of waves as they reached the shore of the lake. The occasional shriek filled the air whenever the giant squid playfully wrapped a tentacle around the foot of an unsuspecting student cooling their feet in the lake, but apart from that, Teddy had never felt so much at peace. His exams were finally over, signalling the end of his Hogwarts career, and he had the upcoming week to relax before he would be boarding the Hogwarts Express for the last time and forced into the outside world to look for a job.

Teddy fully intended to make the most of the stress free week ahead of him.

Garratt and Alison had started discussing the party that had been planned for that night, fortunately not including Teddy in the conversation. He wasn't the strictest of Head Boys, and he would be attending the party, but he felt that he was pushing it if he was actively involved in planning it. He had already planned his excuse if one of the teachers crashed the party (which was that, obviously there was going to be a party whether he approved of it or not, so surely it was better if it was held in the common room where he would be there to put a stop to it if it got out of hand), though whether any teacher who caught them would believe him was another matter.

So instead, Teddy watched the nearby students. A small group were sat in a circle on the grass, playing exploding snap, while two students playing chess glared at them whenever the playing cards blew up. A couple of boys had taken their robes off and were swimming in the lake, quite obviously trying to impress the girls sat at the edge who were blatantly ignoring them, preferring to listen to the wireless that they had brought outside.

Teddy watched as the castle's front doors opened and a group of about six or seven students walked out. Even from this far away, Teddy could hear their laughter, and he watched them cross the grounds, talking and joking amongst themselves. It was only when they were passing close to where their little group was sat, did Teddy realise that the group included Victoire.

Her head was thrown back mid-laugh, her strawberry blonde hair falling to her waist like a curtain of shining material, reflecting the sunlight and making it painful to look at. Victoire walked with an easy grace, and as Teddy watched, she picked up her pace to walk with one of her friends who was leading the group. Teddy was transfixed by the way she walked, how her robes rippled with each step she took, her hair swaying in the light breeze; he couldn't take his eyes off her.

It was then that Victoire glanced around her, almost as if she had sensed Teddy's gaze. She waved at him, smiling briefly. It took Teddy longer than it should have to remember to wave back, and he barely raised his arm before Victoire had turned back to talk to her friend.

"Teddy?" The voice brought Teddy back to Earth, and he shook his head in an attempt to clear his head. As he did so, he noticed that he wasn't the only male staring in the direction of Victoire and her friends.

"Yes?" He said, trying not to make it seem like he had just been caught staring.

"Are you ok?" Alison asked.

"I'm fine." Teddy hoped that his tone of voice would make it clear that he didn't want the questioning to be continued. It must have done, because Alison carried on with the conversation she had been having, and Teddy put more effort into paying attention to what was being said.

Damn that Veela charm. Teddy would be having words with Victoire about using it in public.

-o-

It was nearing midnight, though if Teddy thought he'd be able to hear the clocks chime twelve he was very much mistaken.

The Gryffindor house end of exams party was in full swing, and there was no intention of it dying down anytime soon. The common room was filled with people shouting in order to make themselves heard over the music being blasted out of the old wireless that looked like it had been there during Teddy's father's time at Hogwarts. People dancing filled up every corner of the room, and any space that miraculously wasn't, was usually occupied by someone vomiting into a plant pot. Teddy felt a pang of guilt at seeing a number of students from different houses pass him, thinking that they could have sneaked Garrett and Di in somehow, if others had managed it. But that uneasiness in his stomach disappeared once he took another swig from the bottle of firewhiskey he was carrying and he tried to focus on more pressing problems.

Like where the hell Isaac had got himself lost.

Di was going to hex him into next week if she ever found out that Teddy had lost him, which didn't seem to be as terrifying a thought to Teddy as it would have been had he not been on his fifth bottle of the night. Teddy and Alison had promised to keep an eye on Isaac – Merlin knew he couldn't handle his drink – but the last time Teddy had seen Alison she had been glued at the lips to a sixth year Ravenclaw who had manage to get in, and they were both now suspiciously absent from the common room. This left the job of keeping Isaac safe to Teddy.

Teddy swore. He was dead. He was actually dead. This would be his last night living if he didn't find Isaac immediately. He glanced around at the couples kissing, making sure that none of them involved Isaac (if they did, then Teddy would be having a joint funeral). Next, he made a round of all the vomiting students on the floor, and after that, Teddy checked the bathrooms. Only one was occupied, and Teddy had barely opened the door when he shut it again, definitely not wanting to hang around to watch what the couple in there were doing.

Giving up, Teddy sat down on the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitories and contemplated his impending doom.

"You look like you've been sentenced to life in Azkaban," a voice said.

Teddy looked up to find Victoire blearily looking down at him, a bottle in her hand.

"I'm going to die."

"When's this going to happen?"

"Dunno. Whenever Di finds out I lost Isaac."

"You're safe for tonight, though, right?" Teddy nodded. "Might as well enjoy it while you can, then."

Victoire pulled Teddy up with her free hand, surprisingly steady considering that she was slurring her words ever so slightly and looked like she would topple over in the high heels she was wearing if she tried to walk anywhere.

Teddy allowed her to drag him halfway across the common room until they found a gap in the crowd that wasn't occupied by dancing students, couples making out, or someone on the floor vomiting. He took a sip from his bottle of firewhiskey, using it as a cover so he could get a proper look at Victoire. Her hair had been tied up in a loose bun, with stray hairs framing her face – whether that was intentional or the hair had become loose sometime during the night Teddy couldn't tell, but he couldn't deny that it framed her round face perfectly… her face that was practically radiating, with eyes of a pleasant sky blue looking up at him.

Teddy shook his head, trying to clear it.

"Not fair, Vic." Teddy had to shout so she would hear.

"What's not fair?" She shouted back.

"Veela charm. Making unsuspecting males who have known you since you were in nappies want to do things that will get them killed by half your family. You did it this afternoon when I saw you outside, too."

Even in the dim lighting, Teddy saw Victoire blush, and he knew that he'd got her.

"It's not cool, Vic. What's the difference between that and sneaking love potions into everyone's drinks?"

Teddy started to move away, but Victoire grabbed onto his arm, keeping him in place. Teddy looked back at her, and saw that her face and eyes had dulled to a more normal look.

"I'm sorry."

"Let me go, I have to find Isaac."

Teddy stared, hard, into Victoire's eyes until he felt her grip slacken and he pulled himself away.

He started shoving and pushing people aside, creating a path through the crowd. It was soon made easier as people started to move out of his way at Teddy's approach, not wanting to be shoved unceremoniously into anyone else. Unfortunately, this also made it easier for Victoire to follow him.

Teddy was halfway up the stairs to his dormitory when Victoire caught up to him. Her deftness at running up the steep staircase in heels made him wonder whether she had only been acting drunk the whole time. Victoire managed to side step him as he stumbled slightly on a step and when Teddy looked up she was standing one step above him.

"Are you angry with me?" Victoire asked, and Teddy was surprised to hear that she sounded timid – it must be the first time in her life that she had.

"I'm not angry, try disappointed. I knew you went through boyfriends quicker than you let your parents know, but I didn't think you'd sunk low enough to practically force them to go out with you."

Victoire's face fell into a look of complete shock, which turned to anger in a matter of milliseconds.

"I would never do anything like that!"

"Really? Because that's what it looks like."

"You've known me forever, how could you even think that? Apart from that, I've never exactly needed to force anyone to go out with me. I'm not proud of it but that's just–"

If Teddy hadn't already been suspicious about Victoire acting drunk before, he was almost certain she had been now; she had stopped slurring words in her anger and her capability to defend herself with a half decent argument was the icing on the cake.

"Why were you acting drunk? What were you actually trying to achieve with that?"

Victoire's cheeks turned red again and she stopped talking.

"I thought – I thought… I thought guys found drunk girls more attractive," mumbled Victoire, barely audible.

And in the seconds after Victoire spoke, when Teddy looked up at Victoire, he understood. The hazy fog that had been clouding his brain cleared suddenly and he saw Victoire as she was: a sixteen year old girl, trying to figure out her place in the world and making mistakes along the way. She was just a kid.

Not that Teddy could talk; he was the one leaving school and still managed to burn toast – Merlin help him when moves out and has to cook for himself. But he did have two extra years of life experience under his belt, which, at the moment, was a lot more useful than being able to cook.

"The only guys who like drunk girls are the guys who want to take advantage of you," said Teddy. "And try not to use me in your games next time, yeah? Who are you trying to make jealous, anyway?"

Victoire frowned, pausing for a second, before saying quickly, "No one."

But Teddy noticed the colour rising in her face again.

"That's fine if you don't want to tell me. You know, I'm only your oldest friend, but that doesn't matter," Teddy teased. "Can you get out of my way now? I'm not really in the mood for the party anymore, and I need to find Isaac."

"Sure, sorry." Victoire stepped to the side, letting Teddy past. The narrow staircase meant this wasn't very effective, however, and Teddy still had to turn sideways to continue up the stairs.

He climbed the rest of the way to his dormitory, briefly remembering that he'd forgotten to check the dorm on his previous search of Isaac, and hoping that he would find him here.

Teddy had turned the doorknob, and was halfway through opening the door when he heard someone shout his name and running footsteps behind him. He stopped, looking over his shoulder, and turning around completely when he saw that it was Victoire running up the stairs. He had assumed that she'd gone back to the party when he had left her, and was surprised that she was following him; there wasn't much left to talk to her about as far as he was concerned.

"I  _am_  sorry. Really," panted Victoire, making her way up the last few steps before she reached the landing. As she came closer, Teddy could see that the blush hadn't faded from her cheeks. "It's just… You know when you date someone, because you suppose they're kind of cute only you don't really like them like that but you go along with it anyway because, it's just a bit of fun, yeah?" Victoire was speaking almost too quickly for Teddy's brain to process her words properly. Somehow, it did manage to keep up, and Teddy was reminded of the other night when Victoire had ditched her midnight rendezvous with a no named boyfriend. She was still speaking, however, and Teddy didn't have time to dwell on the thought if he wanted to listen to what she was saying, "Only, then you talk to someone that you've known for forever and for some reason it suddenly hits you that you do like this idiot, and you're confused about it so you spend the next day or so thinking about it, and you realise that you've probably always liked him and that was why you never felt anything for the other perfectly nice boys who weren't nerdy at all, didn't put too much stock by the rules, and  _definitely_  didn't turn your hair green at your sixth birthday party. And you don't know what to do about that, so you make a fool of yourself, get him angry at you, and all that's left to do is apologise and maybe everything would be easier if you just told him."

Teddy stood, frozen in place. Victoire's words kept repeating themselves in his mind, and they distracted him enough so that he didn't notice Victoire shifting her weight from one foot to the other and biting her lip, which meant that he also didn't notice when she stopped doing these things, took a deep breath, closed the space between them, and kissed him.

Victoire's lips were soft against his own. She kissed him once, twice, her lips lingering for a second before she pulled away.

It took Teddy a few seconds for his brain to catch up with his senses, and he stared at Victoire blankly until it did. He blinked a few times, trying to think of something to say, but it seemed like his brain processes hadn't started functioning correctly yet, and all he could manage was a strangled, "That was unexpected."

Victoire looked at him, clearly having expected him to say something else – anything else, probably. She stayed silent, though, looking down at her feet occasionally, but keeping Teddy's gaze for the most part.

One of the cogs in Teddy's brain kicked into gear then, which brought back some of his vocabulary.

"I got the wrong end of the stick before, didn't I? I –" That was all Teddy managed to say before he felt the anger rising in his chest. "You were going all Veela on me before? It wasn't just a side effect of trying to get someone else's attention - Merlin's beard, Victoire!"

Victoire took a step back, and it was plain to see on her face that this wasn't what she had expected to happen.

"I already apologised for that! What more-"

"So when you said that you'd never do that to make someone like you, you were lying?" Teddy could hear his voice rising in volume; he didn't care enough to try to lower it. "It doesn't matter, it's only Teddy, he'll forgive me?"

"I didn't-"

"You just don't think about anyone else. It's always got to be about you."

"That's not true. I do care about other people, I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Vic. You couldn't think of another way to let me know this? How about just taking me to one side and talking to me, if it mattered to you that much?"

Victoire opened her mouth to argue back again, but Teddy cut her off.

"Leave me alone."

He turned his back on her, walking into his dormitory and pushing the door behind him so that it shut with a  _bang._

He didn't bother glancing back to see Victoire's face.

Teddy didn't look around him as he made his way to his bed and got dressed for bed. He threw himself down on the mattress, and lay there, seething, for a long time. It was only when he had calmed down slightly that he registered the sound of someone else snoring.

Rolling over onto his side, Teddy could make out Isaac, still fully clothed, collapsed onto his bed.


End file.
